Finally, we’ve reached Peak Football.
Oh, sure, you thought you’d witnessed Peak Football before now. You’ve had college bowl games — a whole bunch of them, in fact — come around and set up shop on New Years Day (give or take) alongside the previous or next day’s NFL fare.
Yes, we’ve had several straight days of football, and yes, it’s often included the pro and college varieties. We basically do it every week during the season, Thursday through Monday, and at different times the MAC and CUSA offer Tuesday and/or Wednesday games. Some weeks, you could literally watch football for seven straight days — if you don’t mind a little FIU-UTEP in the mix.
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But never this.
Five straight days of win-or-go-home football, eight games in all, with eight seasons about to end for the unfortunate.
Thursday: College semifinal.
Friday: College semifinal.
Saturday: Two NFL playoff games.
Sunday: Three NFL playoff games.
Monday: One more NFL playoff game.
And on the two days with multiple NFL games, start times are separated by 3½ hours, so no overlap, barring weirdness.
The following weekend, we’ll get four total NFL games on Saturday-Sunday and the college championship Monday night (Jan. 20), which will be plenty to digest but nothing compared to this first-ever edition of Peak Football. Honestly, if you’re a programmer at any of the competing networks, save on budgeting and cue up the Matlock reruns.
A couple of things to ponder as you prepare for this bonanza.
First, we used to joke about such things, but you will quite literally see some college stars who make more money than many of those suiting up in NFL uniforms. The NFL’s rookie minimum is $795,000, and it’s $940,000 for a third-year guy. Several of the top players from the four semifinal college programs are in higher tax brackets. Comfortably higher.
The college semifinals feature four of the game’s historical bluebloods. As much upheaval as we’ve seen, with the new NIL rules wood-shedding the status quo, we’ve somehow landed with Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State and Texas, as if this is 1975.
The NCAA hoops tourney would have to produce a Final Four of UCLA, Kansas, Kentucky and Indiana to match that.
Finally, consider this in Year 1 of the 12-team playoff. Under the four-team system in place from 2014-23, which sent the four highest ranked teams at season’s end into the semifinals, this year’s final foursome would’ve included Oregon and Georgia instead of Ohio State and Notre Dame, the two teams that outclassed them last week.
Now let’s click on that inbox and see what we find …
Let’s drink to cornhole, then introduce the kettle to the pot
HEY, WILLIE!
Scanning the N-J sports section, I found “college cornhole championships” in the TV listings. I can watch true competitive grit!
Alas, NIL rules allow 21-and-over cornholers to hold and consume their sponsor beer during competition. Makes “tapping out” at halftime OK, I guess.
TERRY
HEY, TERRY!
It took more mouse clicks than you’d imagine, but it appears congrats are in order for the Winthrop Eagles, the new national cornhole champs following this past week’s national tournament in Myrtle Beach.
Additional research confirms at least two official collegiate cornhole sponsors can quench certain thirsts — Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Seagram’s. Some others are more traditional, including Johnsonville, Corn Nuts and, of course, the Duluth Trading Company.
Speaking of which, when Duluth announced its deal with the American Cornhole League (would I kid you?) last year, the company’s marketing guy, Gary Weber, trotted out the following quote …
“Not only does ACL mirror our love of having fun and working hard, but Cornhole, as a sport, is something we passionately play. How could we not when it uses technical terms like ‘Cowpie,’ ‘Woody,’ and ‘Dadhole’? Game recognizes game.”
Let’s move along.
HEY, WILLIE!
I was reading the News-Journal and saw the absolutely best example of “Pot meet Kettle” I have ever seen.
A USA Today sports columnist wrote, “it’s time to quit nitpicking and let college football do its thing.” The national sports media has done nothing but nitpick for most of the past two decades.
Now that they’ve nagged, caterwauled and whined their way to get what they want, he is unhappy that those of us “wrapped up in tradition,” as he put it, don’t like it.
KERMIT
HEY, KERMIT!
It’s been said that folks in our “business” have a long (and metaphorical, I’ll add) history of charging down the hill at battle’s end to bayonet the wounded. Kind of a constitutional duty, you might say. No need to thank me for my service; it’s usually a pleasure.
You gotta have a short memory and merely a passing relationship with humility to keep second-guessing others while ignoring your own missteps, which leads me to the following …
The College Football Playoff Picks
At critical times like this, I’ve been doing my Irish-loving friends a favor and picking against Notre Dame. In toss-up games, it usually works. Can’t do it this time. Sorry, but this Irish product seems different, no doubt buoyed by deep NIL pockets — Notre Dame over Penn State by 6.
Friday night, the Longhorns get a kinda home game when they face the Buckeyes at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. It wouldn’t be shocking to see them turn in a great game after that near-death experience with Arizona State (including that non-call on the obvious targeting, by the way).
But you get the feeling it’s Ryan Day’s destiny to take Ohio State all the way, given the roasting he received after yet another loss to Michigan. It’s stunning how well he’s done against all teams located east, west, north and south of Ann Arbor — Buckeyes by 10.
And sorry, but no amount of reverse mojo will save the Irish from the Buckeyes on Jan. 20.
— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
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